Page:Abstract of the evidence for the abolition of the slave-trade 1791.djvu/183

( 149 ) Though this circumstance would induce us to think that it was cheaper to rear than to buy a slave, (for in estimating the price given for one that is bought, not only the prime cost is to be considered, but a third more is to be added to it, with various other circumstances) yet, as sufficient data are not to be found in the evidence to enable us to come to a calculation, we must be content to abide by the facts that follow:

Purchase of new slaves the cause of embarrassments and debts.

Those estates, says Forster, which bought the greatest number of new negroes, were not thought to be the most flourishing. It was exactly the reverse.

On an estate, which Mr. Coor knew, the proprietor was often buying lots of twenty, thirty, or forty slaves, and yet this man, by ill using them, (which ill usage is inseparably connected with the buying system) suffered a reduction both in the number of his negroes and the produce of his estate, so that from good circumstances his credit was in eleven years reduced to a low ebb.

Captain Scott was present at the sale of Yemman's property, the person mentioned to have adopted the system of buying in preference to that of breeding, and working his negroes up in the space of four years.

Lieutenant Davison believes owners of slaves are very commonly involved with Guinea merchants; for they often stay on the estates all the week, except Sundays, with their gates always locked.

The dependance [sic] on the imported slaves, says the Rev. Mr. Davies, certainly contributed to embarrass planters.

Mr. Woolrich, who is qualified to give the history of Tortola in this particular, says, that when he first went there, there were but few slaves, and that at this time the planters were in good credit, and none of them involved in debt. In about three or four years, however, after his arrival there, some Guinea ships came down